Man charged with 15 felonies in deadly gun battle with LAPD

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Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Andrew Smith looks at the damage to an LAPD BearCat, a wheeled armored personnel carrier, after an officer involved shooting that killed a man early Monday morning. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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LAPD investigators look for bullet casings and other evidence on the Vernon Avenue onramp to the northbound 110 Freeway early Monday, as they investigate an officer-involved shooting. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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LAPD investigators look for bullet casings and other evidence on the Vernon Avenue onramp to the northbound 110 Freeway early Monday as they investigate an officer-involved shooting that left one of two suspects dead and an officer wounded. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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An LAPD investigator looks over a weapon belonging to a suspect who was shot and killed at the end of a police pursuit early Monday. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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A bullet hole in an LAPD patrol car that was involved in a shootout Monday morning in South L.A. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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Los Angeles police officers near the end of a pursuit that left one of two gunmen dead after a freeway shootout, which forced the closure of part of the northbound 110 early Monday. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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A section of the northbound 110 Freeway heading into downtown was closed early Monday as Los Angeles police investigated a shooting that they said left one of two gunmen dead and an officer wounded. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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A weapon lies in the street near 37th and Hill streets, where LAPD officers killed one of two gunmen in a freeway shootout. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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LAPD officers sit on the back of an armored vehicle near the end of a pursuit early Monday in South Los Angeles. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

By Joseph Serna

Aug. 20, 2014 3:05 PM PT

A man found hiding in a dumpster after multiple shootouts with police through the streets of Los Angeles has been charged with 15 felonies, including attempted murder and assault of an officer.

Avel Jowan Turks, 18, of Los Angeles, is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon on six counts of attempted murder on a peace officer, six counts of using an assault weapon on an officer, and one count each of shooting at an occupied vehicle, evading police and possession for sale of cocaine base.

Turks was arrested early Monday after a dramatic run-and-gun battle with police through the streets and freeways of South L.A.

Police said the confrontation started near Florence Avenue and Broadway about 2:20 a.m., when police tried to pull over the driver of a Chevy Tahoe for reckless driving.

The SUV sped off, police said, leading officers along surface streets before heading onto the 110 Freeway. The Tahoe briefly got off the freeway before stopping on the Vernon Avenue onramp, where a gunman got out of the passenger seat and traded fire with LAPD officers, police said.

After speeding off again, the assailants got off the freeway at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and drove east into an industrial area near USC and crashed into a curb at 37th and Hill streets, Cmdr. Andrew Smith said.

The two men ran from the car and hid as police searched the neighborhood. Officers set up a perimeter and called in two helicopters, a SWAT team and police dogs, he said.

About two hours after the chase began, a police dog found Turks in a dumpster. Officers lobbed a flash grenade to stun him and used pepper spray to subdue him and take him into custody. Prosecutors on Wednesday will request his bail be increased to $4.1 million.

The second man in the chase – identified as Andre Maurice Jones, 37, of Los Angeles – was found carrying a rifle about a block away on Grand Avenue between 38th and 37th streets.

The department’s SWAT team used one of its two BearCat armored vehicles, a $150,000 rescue vehicle bought in 2003, to shield them as they approached Jones.

Smith said Jones peppered the BearCat with bullets, striking a SWAT officer, before he was killed by return fire, Smith said.

“Thank goodness we had that armored vehicle as a shield because a regular police cruiser would have been Swiss cheese,” Smith said.

The bullet that struck the officer shattered a bone in his left leg and blew out a section of his calf – a serious injury that will take months to heal and potentially ended his career, officials said.

The rifle Jones was wielding is “rare,” Smith said, and was modified with a plastic stock, assault rifle pistol grip and a high-capacity drum magazine.

Turks faces life in prison if convicted on all charges.

For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna.